The Setup: Cops, Robbers and Los Angeles
Nemesis is the latest crime series on Netflix that follows two men very different in their own legacies, through different lenses of morality, one within a system that was never meant to take him in, and the other within an environment that threatens to swallow what’s left of his brilliance and humanity. A hard-nosed LAPD cop becomes obsessed with bringing down the master thief behind a string of daring heists, and there can be only one winner. It’s a premise as old as crime fiction itself, but Nemesis wears its influences proudly and executes them with considerable swagger.
Baldwin Hills Heat
So Nemesis is talking to Heat, looking at what that movie does right and where it occasionally stumbles, and asking, ‘What can we do with the shape of this thing to make it reflect crime, policing and geography in Los Angeles in 2026?” So it’s Heat with Black protagonists, Heat with Baldwin Hills instead of Hollywood Hills and coastal real estate porn, Heat with the female leads elevated to actual characterizations rather than ciphers for the monomania of the two leads. The filmmaking pedigree is also appropriately cinematic, with the first two episodes directed by Mario Van Peebles, who also acts as executive producer.
The Central Rivalry
The eight-episode first season begins at a lavish Beverly Hills estate on Halloween, where beloved businessman Coltrane Wilder (Y’lan Noel) and his wife Ebony (Cleopatra Coleman) are decked out as iconic New Jack City characters. Detective Isiah Stiles (Matthew Law) gets wind of a Halloween robbery and becomes obsessed with bringing Coltrane down, even if it means burning up everything and everyone he loves. Coltrane, meanwhile, is adamant about keeping the felonious parts of his business far away from the life he and Ebony have worked so meticulously to build. What ensues is a bloody, tantalizing battle of wits and nerve as the two men head on a collision course to destroy each other.
More Than Crime A Show About
At its core, Nemesis is as much about marriage and family as it is about heists and shoot-outs. Detective Stiles and his criminal prey Coltrane wage wars on the streets of Los Angeles, both overt and clandestine, and find themselves at war with their own loved ones. Co-creator Courtney A. Kemp has spoken to this theme, saying she was “really interested in marriage, parenthood, all these family themes, but also still being super entertaining.” A nemesis, according to Kemp, is “someone who takes you down because of you” — you make all the wrong decisions because of them, and that has an impact on everybody around you, no matter what side of right or wrong they’re on.
Performance: Mostly Great, One Not So Great
The greatest strength of Nemesis lies in its characters. Everybody gets a chance to shine almost and the casting is mostly spot on across the board. Y’lan Noel is magnetic as Coltrane and Matthew Law holds his own as the increasingly obsessive Stiles. Isiah and Coltrane are intoxicating enemies because they do the least expected thing and the show opens up both of their worlds brilliantly, with some memorable side characters that Power Universe fans will recognize a couple of familiar faces. But not everyone impresses the same. The weak link of the main cast remains Cleopatra Coleman, whose performance feels one-dimensional and whose chemistry with Y’lan Noel never quite gels.
The Women Keep It Together
It’s one of the show’s better surprises what it does with its female characters. The women of the series are strong. When Ebony and Candice see their husbands on the verge of self-destruction, these women make difficult, unexpected choices to redirect their lives — these women can see the bigger picture when the men around them are hyperfocused on one goal. When the plot begins to get a bit too convoluted and the action starts to feel overdone, the women in this world give Nemesis the grounding it needs.
Style, Spectacle, and a Banger Score
Visually Nemesis looks great. The show’s aesthetic, costumes, production design and locations combine to create a grand and stylish identity. The show feels confident and expensive from a directorial standpoint, and the score consistently elevates scenes and adds flair, particularly in the action sequences. The action is solid, but the restraint where it shouldn’t be. A few more major set pieces would have helped the series to capitalise better on its scale.
The next big Netflix hit? Verdict:
Nemesis is a soap-opera serialised thriller that luxuriates in its emotional excesses and its occasional lapses into narrative ludicrousness. It may not reinvent the wheel, but it rolls it with true confidence. Nemesis wins, because it knows the importance of momentum and character investment. You actually DO care about most of the people involved, and the main rivalry is still strong enough to support the weaker moments. More importantly, the show is set up for plenty of escalation – the set-up for a next season is genuinely exciting and hints at even more engrossing face-offs ahead. After all, Courtney A. Kemp has already wrung 63 episodes out of the similarly pulpy Power. So there’s every reason to believe Nemesis has the bones to become something special. For now, it’s one of the most fun crime dramas of 2026.
Premieres May 14, 2026 | Netflix | Created by Courtney A. Kemp & Tani Marole
Rating: 7.5 / 10
